They were submitted to various
antiquaries, who said that, so far as the damaged pieces would allow
them to form an opinion, the statue seemed to be that of a mutilated
Roman satyr; or if not, an allegorical figure of Death. Only one or
two old inhabitants guessed whose statue those fragments had
composed.
I should have added that, shortly after the death of the Countess,
an excellent sermon was preached by the Dean of Melchester, the
subject of which, though names were not mentioned, was
unquestionably suggested by the aforesaid events. He dwelt upon the
folly of indulgence in sensuous love for a handsome form merely; and
showed that the only rational and virtuous growths of that affection
were those based upon intrinsic worth. In the case of the tender
but somewhat shallow lady whose life I have related, there is no
doubt that an infatuation for the person of young Willowes was the
chief feeling that induced her to marry him; which was the more
deplorable in that his beauty, by all tradition, was the least of
his recommendations, every report bearing out the inference that he
must have been a man of steadfast nature, bright intelligence, and
promising life.
The company thanked the old surgeon for his story, which the rural
dean declared to be a far more striking one than anything he could
hope to tell. An elderly member of the Club, who was mostly called
the Bookworm, said that a woman's natural instinct of fidelity
would, indeed, send back her heart to a man after his death in a
truly wonderful manner sometimes--if anything occurred to put before
her forcibly the original affection between them, and his original
aspect in her eyes,--whatever his inferiority may have been, social
or otherwise; and then a general conversation ensued upon the power
that a woman has of seeing the actual in the representation, the
reality in the dream--a power which (according to the sentimental
member) men have no faculty of equalling.
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